There have been cutting apparatuses that cut pieces of two-dimensional information out of a recording medium such as a sheet of paper. The two-dimensional information may be desired characters, marks and/or figures. Typically, such a cutting apparatus cuts out a piece of two-dimensional information by displacing a recording medium held on a platen in a predetermined transfer direction, while reciprocally moving a cutting carriage retaining a cutter for cutting the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to the transfer direction of the recording medium.
For example, a previous cutting apparatus may be a print-and-cut type cutting apparatus. The print-and-cut type cutting apparatus includes an image forming carriage equipped with a recording head for printing two-dimensional information, and a cutting head for cutting out a piece of the two-dimensional information. The print-and-cut cutting apparatus performs printing or cutting with respect to a recording medium by reciprocally displacing the recording medium held on a platen in an auxiliary scanning direction, while reciprocally displacing the image forming carriage in a main scanning direction.
However, in cutting apparatuses such as the print-and-cut cutting apparatus described above, solenoids perform reciprocal driving for contact and separation of a cutter retained by the cutting head for cutting pieces of the two-dimensional information with respect to the recording medium. As such, great variations exist in the force of which the cutter pushes the recording medium such that excessive or insufficient cutting by the cutter with respect to the recording medium occurs, which leads to reduced processing accuracy. Also, when cutting of the two-dimensional information by the cutting head is prolonged, heat is generated in the solenoids, which considerably reduces the driving force of the cutter. Consequently, the reduced processing accuracy becomes more prominent.
Accordingly, to address the problems described above, the embodiments of the present invention provide a cutting apparatus that can perform reciprocal movements of a cutter for cutting out pieces of two-dimensional information with respect to a recording medium for a lengthy amount of time, and with a stable driving force. Thus, the processing accuracy in cutting pieces of two-dimensional information out of the recording medium is improved.